The Blue
by Rucasofcamelot
Summary: Sequal to "The Mindcaster and the Hawk." The Midnighters and Animorphs team up to stop the Yeerks from entering the secret hour and unleashing the nightmares within.
1. Chapter 1

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

Chapter One

_Back in Town_

My name is Tobias. I haven't had a last time for quite awhile so don't bother asking. As to where I live, its basically a meadow out in the country. Nothing special. Though, admittedly, the prey is quite good. I don't tell my friends that though; it kind of creeps them out.

You may be asking what the heck I'm talking about.

Well, the simple answer is, I'm a red- tailed hawk who can change into any other animal I touch, as well as become my old human self for two hours at a time. Okay, maybe not so simple.

A couple years ago, I met up with four other kids: Jake, Marco, Rachel and Cassie at the mall. We decided to take a shortcut through an abandoned construction site. It was there we met Prince Elfangor, a dying Andalite warrior who warned us of an invading parasite race called Yeerks. To help us fight the Yeerks, Elfangor gave us the power to morph, to obtain the DNA of any given creature, and to have the ability to become that creature.

But there was a catch. If you stay in that morph for too long, you're trapped in that animal body. That's what happened to me. If it hadn't been for the mystical Ellimist, I wouldn't be able to morph at all!

Now I was perched up in one of the rafters looking out at Cassie's barn. Bales of hay littered the dirty floor. Animals ranging from wolves to skunks lay in various cages all over the place. There was a nearby golden eagle with a broken wing that was making me nervous. Cassie's parents used the barn as their Wildlife Rehabilitation clinic. It was also where we, the Animorphs, held most of the meetings.

"Has anyone else noticed the stink in here?" Marco asked. "I blame the skunk."

"Sorry about that," Cassie murmured. "Its just that I had a dream last night. But it was more than a dream..." She blushed, clearly flustered.

"Do you mean like the one that led you to finding me in the ocean?" Ax, our local Andalite, asked. "Ocean. Oceeaan." Andalites had no mouths, so when Ax was in his human morph, he tended to play with the sounds.

Cassie nodded. "Yeah. It was about that girl we met last month: Melissa." She looked up at me. Melissa was my cousin. She was also a mindcaster.

"Guess who's back?" A male voice called from outside.

_Jonathan,_ I said in thought- speak. I'd seen the crappy old Ford Jonathan and Melissa drove in from miles away.

Cassie ran over to the barn doors and threw them open. Jonathan and Melissa walked in, Melissa seemingly distressed. It was no big surprise; the two of them, and Jessica Day during the secret hour, had spent the last couple of months searching for other midnighters.

"I take it you put that dream in my head?" Cassie asked Melissa.

The mindcaster nodded. "Not too long ago, I had to touch people to manipulate their minds. Not so much these days. Anyway, I figured I should phone ahead before stopping by."

A chill ran through me; Melissa had a way of being incredibly creepy. Melissa looked up at me, a small smile curving on her lips. Great. She read my mind. No big deal. She probably heard that a lot.

"So why did you come?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, you don't seem the type to come around for small talk," Marco added.

_I told them to come._

All heads whipped around. An elderly man outlined in blue had just appeared out of nowhere! I inwardly groaned. This couldn't be good. When the Ellimist was involved, it was rarely good.

Suddenly, a blue light exploded all around them, followed by an unearthly silence. It seemed as if the entire world was at a standstill. Not even the animals moved. The Ellimist had frozen time before, but this was different. This had an ancient feel to it.

"What happened?" A red- headed girl I hadn't noticed before asked. She seemed to be in shock.

_I have enacted the blue time. We need to talk about the upcoming danger. The danger centered around the Yeerks and the darklings._


	2. Chapter 2

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

Chapter 2

A Rip in Time

A few years ago, this would have scared me to no end. Here I was in a frozen world outlined in blue, with the Ellimist and some girl with an electrified hand I assumed must be Jessica Day just appearing out of nowhere. But I was a teenage boy trapped in a hawk's body who helped to fight a race of alien parasites. It was safe to say very little surprised me at this point.

I looked down at the Ellimist, his blue- outlined body nearly melding together with the secret hour. I then turned to the three midnighters. They too seemed thrown off by the sudden arrival of blue time in the middle of the day.

Melissa turned to me. "This has happened before," she said bluntly. "Sort of."

I could see why the mindcaster would get on peoples' nerves.

"What's this all about?" Rachel demanded of the Ellimist.

The celestial being facing them nodded thoughtfully. _Time is in grave danger. Many a century ago, my kind gave the darklings the choice of eventually dying out in the modernizing world, or taking refuge in an hour secret to all but them and those select few born at midnight. They chose the secret hour._

"You're not in the lore," Melissa told him. "I'm sure if Rex knew about you, he wouldn't have hesitated to go in lecture- mode with the rest of us."

"That was intentional," the Ellimist retorted. "We made it seem like it was the darklings who created the secret hour."

Ax moved uncomfortably over by one of the frozen horses. I didn't need to be a mindcaster to know what he was thinking. The Andalite didn't trust the Ellimist. He said the entities claimed not to interfere, but had a history of giving other creatures a choice that wasn't really a choice at all. With both our case and the darklings' case, the "choice" was simple: live or die.

"Why are you telling us this?" Jessica asked.

_Visser Three has taken control of a daylighter who knows the truth. It is a man named Ernesto Grayfoot. With Ernesto's knowledge, Visser Three has initiated technology to create another rip between the daylight world, and midnight. His idea is to create darkling controllers, and finish the invasion of Earth once and for all._

I was stunned. The Yeerks were breaking into the secret hour. That would be a disaster!

"What are we supposed to do?" Jonathan gasped. Jonathan had been a Controller. He knew what it was like to be a slave to the Yeerks.

_That is your decision _the Ellimist said. Suddenly he was gone, and the blue light disappeared, bringing back the raucous sounds and rank smells of Cassie's barn. Jessica too was gone, still trapped within the confines of the secret hour.

Everyone was deathly silent. Everyone but Jonathan, who was laughing wildly. Melissa glanced at him, a knowing look crossing her face.

_You know, not all of us are mindcasters_ I said.

"What are you laughing about?" Rachel snapped at the acrobat. "There is nothing funny going on here!"

"Its not funny," Jonathan replied, finally calming down, though there was still an ear- to- ear grin all over his face. "This might actually be a good thing. If Visser Three is breaking into the blue time, maybe we could use the Oppurtunity to break Jessica out!"

Jake nodded thoughtfully. "We can try. But our first priority is keeping the darklings from falling under Visser Three's control." He looked at Jonathan and Melissa consolingly. "We'll do what we can," he promised. "Don't worry, we'll fill you in on what's happening."

Jonathan looked indignant. "No way, Jake! This is as much our battle as it is yours now. We're in!"

"They do have a lot at stake in this, Jake," Cassie added.

Jake met Cassie's eye for a few moments, then sighed. "Fine."

"So where would our sluggish friends hide this 'technology' anyway?" Marco wondered aloud.

"Where else?" Jake retorted.

I inwardly groaned. This could only mean one thing: we had to go to the Yeerk pool. I think I would rather take my chances with the golden eagle eyeing me from it's cage below.


	3. Chapter 3

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

Chapter 3

The Generator

The next night, just a few hours before midnight, I flew to the new headquarters of the Sharing, which served as a front for the Yeerks, pretending to be a positive group for young people while really leading them to their demise. I flapped wildly over the low buildings beneath me. Flying in the night was very difficult for a couple reasons. The warm thermals which, by daylight, would make flying a breeze weren't around. Then there was the fact that my powerful hawk eyes were only such during the daylight. The night usually belonged to the noctornal: Owls, cats, darklings, and midnighters.

I came to perch on a trash can lid shunned away in a desolate alley. The others were already there, including Jonathan and Melissa. Everyone looked tense, even Marco, who usually had a grim humor going on right before a mission. There wasn't much to joke about when the Yeerk Pool was concerned.

"I think it might be better if you guys stayed out of this," Melissa spoke up. "Jonathan, Jessica, and I can sneak in during the secret hour and investigate."

Rachel raised an eyebrow in her direction. "You may be a mindcaster, but you don't know me very well," she snapped.

Marco laughed. "Yeah, telling Xena to stay back and wait for the battle to end is like telling a democrat not to issue a million taxes before the end of their term. In other words, it just isn't possible."

Jake turned to face the two midnighters. "You guys stay here," he ordered. "We'll go in and take care of this."

Jonathan looked somewhat relieved at this, but Melissa was certainly peeved. I had a feeling she was going to try and find a way to be involved in this anyway.

Suddenly, without warning, silence erupted. The night suddenly seemed cold, even the soft wind I had flown with dead. With it came the blue light I came to associate with the blue time. Only I shouldn't be able to see the blue time!

"The Ellimist again?" The newly reappeared Jessica asked.

"No..." Melissa murmured. "This is different. This is the rip."

I looked at Melissa. Her face was pale in the blue light, her eyes glinting purple from the reflection of the dark moon above. Something was spooking her. I didn't blame her. I was pretty spooked too.

"Darklings!" Jonathan cried.

My head jerked in response to the sky. Several large black shapes were lunging at them from above. At ground level was coming panthers, their eyes wide and hungry.

Jessica raised one of her hands; the one that was buzzing with electricity. A bright light resembling lightning burst out and struck the two nearest darklings. They shrieked monstrously before burning to a crisp. Jessica led her hand over the other beasts.

_Lets get inside_ I shouted to the others. _We have to find a way to stop this!_

I took flight and headed for the direction of the Sharing headquarters. Rachel was running beside me, already changing shape. I could clearly see the matted brown fur sprout over her human skin. By the time we got to the door, she was a fully grown grizzly bear. She smashed through the glass double doors with a ferocious roar.

_Room service!_ Marco said in his gorilla form.

A mixture of human and Hork- Bajjir controllers burst through a side door. A young man pointed a gun at us. Cassie, in her wolf morph, pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. I lunged at a Hork- Bajjir, raking his eyes. He fell back, holding his face in pain.

I dodged past another controller, and flew down over the stone steps which led to the Yeerk Pool. The light down here, which was normally a hellish red, was now mixed with the blue, making a new purple. The people were screaming, tearing mercilessly at my heart. But I could do nothing for them now.

Then I saw what I was looking for. I followed a loud humming sound to a pale generator. It was a rectangular box, the size of a decently sized refrigerator. At the top sat for whirling blades. I knew what it must be doing. This generator was sitting above the rip, the electrial energy surging through the generator activating the rip at Visser Three's convenience.

I heard him before I saw him. Even then I barely had enough time to get out of the way. The Andalite hooves cantering across the stone floor resounded off the walls.

_DIE ANDALITE!_ Visser Three bellowed in rage.


	4. Chapter 4

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

Chapter 4

A Chance for Escape

Visser Three.

He was the leader of the Yeerk invasion on Earth. He is the only Yeerk to ever take an Andalite for a controller. As an Andalite, he had that wicked scorpion- like tail which was now poised to cut me in half.

Just as Visser Three was about to strike, another Andalite tail parried the blow. It was Ax! Our friendly neighboorhood Andalite kept the visser at bay as best he could, but I knew he couldn't last long. Visser Three was older, more experiences, and much stronger. It was time for me to get in the game.

I concentrated on the wolf DNA now running through my veins. My body grew, and my bones tickled as they rearranged themselves. My beak became a canine snout, piercing teeth sprouting up in my jaw. My feathers changed to fur, and my talons to paws. My eyesight became dimmer, but my sense of smell intensified.

Then came the wolf personality. It wasn't difficult to handle since it was a lot like my hawk mind: predatorial and hungry, always watchful for enemies and prepared to strike.

Visser Three overcame Ax's assault, pushing him against the wall. I pounced onto his back, sinking my teeth into his neck. Visser Three roared in thought- speech, and tossed me off. Ax took his chance. While Visser Three was distracted, he slashed him across his chest. Visser Three reared back, wounded but still ready to fight.

_Ax! Tobias! We need to move, _Jake's voice said in our heads. _More darklings are coming as well as controllers. Its time to retreat._

_Yes, Prince Jake, _Ax replied obediently.

Ax and I ran for the exit. The white noise behind us was slowing down. The generator must only work for a certain amount of time, and Visser Three's attention was more focused on that than us.

The blue light faded away as we ascended into the main building. Carnage met our eyes. Hork- Bajjir and humans lay slain, the carpet around them stained crimson. It was horrible, but this fate was a whole lot better than the one they previously had.

The others were still in their battle morphs. Jake said, _Melissa says more controllers are on their way. Lets book it before they arrive._

_I agree_, Marco put in.

We exited through the shattered doors where Jonathan and Melissa were waiting.

"Did you guys find out anything?" Jonathan asked.

_Later,_ I said.

Together, we headed off into the night.

...

We met the next day in the woods behind Cassie's house. I perched myself on a tree branch, and told everyone else about the generator. I asked Melissa why she couldn't have just found out the information herself. She said the Yeerk pool was situated on something called a crepisuclar contortion. In other words, it was a deadzone for mindcasters.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Jonathan spoke up excitedly.

Melissa raised an eyebrow at him. "You think so, Flyboy?"

"Does anyone want to tell us non- mindcasters what the hell is going on?" Marco demanded.

Melissa turned to us. "Jonathan is wondering whether we could use the generator's energy mixed with the power of the rip to bring Jessica back to normal time."

"If she's in the center of it, maybe the electrical surge could indeed push her back," Cassie answered thoughtfully.

I watched Jonathan's face, which was now etched in determined hope. I knew no one wanted to let the three midnighters down. It was a risky chance that this might work, but then again, it was only a chance that we would ever be able to truely defeat the Yeerks. But it was that hope that kept us going, and weren't about to turn away from it.


	5. Chapter 5

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

Chapter 5

Sixty Seconds

It was eleven- forty at night. Twenty minutes to midnight, when all those who weren't born at the stroke of twelve(or close enough to it) would be frozen for an hour while the midnighters and darklings ruled.

It was at this time of night we Animorphs found ourselves back at the Yeerk Pool in cockroach morph. I'm not a big fan of insect morphs, and it was late at night. Altogether, I was pretty unhappy about the whole situation. At least, unlike certain other people, I didn't gripe about it every second.

_Man! I'm going to be falling out of my chair in class tomorrow_, Marco groaned.

_Shut up, Marco!_ Rachel snapped. _We have enough to worry about without your distractions!_

_I'll be sure to remember that when I catch you snoozing in History_.

Everybody stopped talking. We were at our destination. I could sense the generator's energy vibrating beneath me. I knew that it wasn't on full power. We had to keep it that way. You see, if the rip opened up tonight, there would be no way we could get Jessica to the generator without a hundred Yeerks on her tail.

_Tobias, Ax, are you ready?_ Jake asked.

_Yes, Prince Jake_, Ax replied.

_It's just Jake, Ax._

_Of course, Prince Jake._

Ax and I began to demorph, Ax covering me. We needed to provide a distraction, and we couldn't risk anyone seeing the others change back to human. Of course, Ax got plenty of attention.

"ANDALITE!" A human controller bellowed.

We instantly had every controller in hearing distance heading right for us. That was good. Ax and I would provide the distraction. The others would mess with the generator.

I screeched and raked a Hork- Bajjir's eyes with my talons. Nearby, Ax was knocking a few heads off. I saw a man pull out a hand- held dracon beam, and sped to him. He pointed it at me, but I was too fast. He didn't have the dracon beam anymore.

_Five minutes to midnight_, Ax said calmly, as he wiped a Hork- Bajjir's head clean off its shoulders.

I could still hear the generator running. It was the others' job to shut it down, then Jessica would power it up again just enough to be surged with its energy, hopefully sending her back to daylight. But if the generator was still running, giving the Yeerks midnight- time, we were screwed.

A taxxon pounced on me, its great jello- like body nearly flatening me. _AX! _I cried. Seconds later, I was free.

_Are you okay, Tobias?_ Ax asked me.

_Yeah, thank you. How much time?_

_Sixty seconds._

Sixty seconds before Jessica Day's fate would be revealed. It was highly unlikely we would get another chance, even if we survived this night. Perhaps that was it. Sixty seconds to live.

_Rachel? _I breathed.

_Yeah,_ Rachel faintly replied.

_There's something I have to tell you, Rachel. I lo-"_

The generator stopped working. The white noise coming from it had been silenced. They did it! In reality, it would be a whole hour before I found out what happened next. But for me, it would only be a second. That was just fine by me. I was in no mood to wait around.


	6. Chapter 6

**I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS OR ANIMORPHS**

_A/N: This is the last chapter... bit of a short one too. Thanks to all those who have been reading, and I'm sorry for the long intervals between updates._

Chapter 6

Back to Bixby

The next instant, I discovered that I was no longer inside the Yeerk Pool. I was back at my meadow, Ax beside me, and the others in cockroach morph nearby. It slowly dawned on me what had happened. During the secret hour, the midnighters (greatly helped by Jonathan's Acrobat abilities) must have grabbed us, and flown away. One thing was sure: the Yeerks must be tripping out big time right now.

After a couple minutes, the others were all back in their human forms. Marco sighed. "You know, I've seen a lot of weird things since we started this shindig, but this is definitely up there."

"It took me awhile to get used to it too."

We all whirled around. Melissa and Jonathan were walking back into the clearing... along with Jessica Day. But she was different now. Not only had the generator zapped her back to regular time, but it had also drained her of her electric hand. Guess she's going back to flashlights.

Jonathan looked like he could fly. "I can't believe it's over!" He said excitably.

Cassie smiled at him. "Congrats. So what are you guys going to do now? Keep looking for new midnighters?"

"I think we're going to head back to Bixby for awhile," Melissa replied. "Poor Dess is probably going crazy by now with Rex's sporotic mood swings and Madeleine's new level of craziness."

_Good luck, Cuz,_ I said in private thought- speak.

The mindcaster granted me a rare smile.

"We still have some work to do," Jake said.

"Not so much," Jessica retorted. "We destroyed the generator. Midnighter security and all."

We stood together and watched as the three midnighters hopped into Jonathan's crappy old car. They looked back at us and waved before driving off into the night. I kind of envied them. Their battle was finally over. Ours, however, was still in its prime. Visser Three was going to be more anxious than ever to wipe out the so- called Andalite bandits who had denied him another species to control. Whatever he was planning next, we would face it like we always did.


End file.
